Replacing your Creative Zen Xtra hard drive

Updates (September 6th, 2006)

I just got an e-mail from a person who pointed out to me that SATA drives will not work in your zen. At the time I wrote this SATA drives weren't very popular in notebook yet so I didn't really think much of it. But now you know, don't buy a SATA drive. You need an ATA-100 (44 pin).
I think in the near future I am going to go into my zen and fix the headphone jack because it gives me trouble every now and then. Also I need to figure out a way to get the scratches out of the screen. I have read that CD/DVD repair things work. I will get back to you on that one.
Happy modding!
p.s.Thanks Taras :)

Updates (July 14th, 2006)

Thanks for all the e-mails people. It looks like I have helped a lot of people with their Zens. Another common e-mail I get is what drive they should use. And 2.5" notebook drive will work. If you drive doesn't work, please e-mail me with the make/model number and I will post it here.

Updates (January 20th, 2006)

I have got a few e-mails about battery life. I honostly think it is better. I listen to this player about an 1 and 1/2 hours a day, 5 days a week. About 7 hours. Before the upgrade I would charge it about every 4 days, now I can go about 5 or 6 before a charge. I rarely let it get down to 1 bar though. So Really battery life isn't much of an issue.

Also, here is a link to the hard drive I purchased: Hitachi 80bg

I also realized this site may not be the most pretty to look at, but hey, most of the info is here.
You can also digg the story if you want.

Ok so hears the deal. You are walking through your kitchen listening to some music and BAM, your headphone cord gets snagged on a drawer knob, knock your Zen out of you hand. You Zen falls to the ground. You turn it back on but it won’t boot up. What do you do? Replace the hard drive!

Here is what you need:

Just to let you know, I am not responsible for your Zen if you screw it up. You are voiding your warrenty if you do this. If you have any common sense you will be fine.

  1. First off, pop the front cover off your Zen and take the battery out.
  2. Flip your Zen over and take the 2 screws off the back cover (Pic).
  3. Flip then Zen back over and take out the 4 screws (Pic). Those are holding the hard drive in.
  4. After you take those screws out, take your flat head screw drive and gently pry the hard drive out FROM THE BOTTOM of the Zen. The drive should just fall out (Pic).
  5. Now get your new drive, and slide it back in there. You should be able to fit in in the IDE connector and just drop it in.
  6. Put the four screws back in on the front that hold the hard drive in place, and the two on the back that hold the back cover on. Put the battery back in and the cover back on.
  7. Boot your Zen up and format the drive. After it formats a screen should pop up for about a half a second telling you your hard drive space.
  8. After formatting, go to the Reload OS option in the Zen boot up menu. It will tell you when to connect your Zen to your computer.
  9. This is were I had problems. After your Zen is plugged into your computer, run the firmware your downloaded earlier. If you try to install the firmware and the installer tells you your Zen isn't hooked up, get the latest system drive from the same place you got your firmware and install the drivers, then try installing the firmware again (Read it again, it will make sense)
  10. After that is finished, your Zen should be all ready to go.

I referd to This guide to help me, but the earlier Zen models are a lot more complicated to work on then the Zen Xtra. Any questions you can contact me at pimpsallad@gmail.com